Forfeit
by Saro
Summary: Team7 Genfic. Inhuman chakra hit Sakura with the force of a Katon. It was all she could do to pull it in when everything in her screamed to push it away.
1. Prologue

Warnings: Rated for violence, language, adult behavior and general ninja-ness. Genfic, so don't expect pairings.

Author's Note: Team 7 centric. Divergent timeline, but canon universe. All feedback is appreciated, but concrit is my favorite.

**Forfeit**

Prologue

Naruto's face closed off in concentration, eyes screwed shut, mouth pulled into a sneer. For a moment, there was nothing. The team stood just inside the cave mouth, ankle deep in stagnant water. It was quiet, other than the controlled rasp of Naruto's breathing. Then his chakra burst outward with enough physical force to nearly knock Sakura over, harsh and powerful, with all the pity of a blast furnace. Naruto's chakra - the Nine-Tails' chakra - reeked of malice. It blew into the cave, filling the small space until it seemed there was no air. It whipped the murky green water into miniature whirlpools and waterspouts.

"Are you sure of this, Sakura?" he asked. His voice was strained. More power, more hate, more chakra, stifling in such close confines. A vein stood out in his temple. "I don't think you or Sasuke can handle this much..."

Sakura swallowed hard. Suddenly there was no moisture in her mouth. "We only have to handle it for a moment," she told him. "Besides, this is the only way. We're already exhausted, and even fresh we couldn't summon that kind of chakra."

Naruto sighed through a grimace, but he nodded. "Hold on a second."

"We don't have a second, dumbass," Sasuke gritted. Sakura shot a look his direction. The power of the Nine-Tails' chakra tugged at his hair and clothes. Sweat ran down his face and mingled with blood from a scalp wound, streaking his white skin red and black. She wished she had the strength to heal that, but she couldn't afford to spare it now.

"Give it to me, Naruto."

Clenching his teeth, Naruto nodded.

Inhuman chakra hit Sakura with the force of a Katon. It was all she could do to pull it in when everything in her screamed to push it away. It tore through her, burning chakra pathways that weren't used to handling so much raw power. It scorched and licked at the coils, until they seemed lit up with furious energy.

She bit her lip before more than a whimper could escape. She'd been right when she guessed Sasuke wouldn't be able to use this as it was. She was amazed Naruto could.

"Sakura?" Naruto said tentatively, and she could barely hear him over the roar of blood and chakra through her ears.

Sakura didn't answer. She struggled just to breathe; it felt like her lungs were full of scorched ozone. Slowly, with infinite care, she forced her will on the Nine-Tail's foreign power. It was like trying to control the flow of molten metal with her bare hands. Somehow, she had to tame this enough for Sasuke to use.

And she had to do it quickly.

The chakra kept coming. There was more of it than she could credit. She gathered it, struggling to bring it to the crucial point just before it could be molded. She struggled not to wonder how Naruto could be alive if he had this in him all the time, always ready. It should have torn him to pieces from the inside out.

It explained why he was so bad at simple jutsu, though.

Squashing the urge to laugh hysterically and just let the chakra run out of her, she continued to bend it, turning it in on itself, forcing the rage and hate quiet. She visualized the vivid red chakra paling to pink. Softer. Softer. Again and again in her mind, she pictured it the color lightening, the vicious lashing calming to a controlled blaze. The chakra itself seemed to resist, searing her insides and sinking claws into her brain.

"Sakura?" Naruto repeated. She felt the chakra ebb away from her, tasted his worry in the traces of his own chakra that mingled with the fox's.

"More, Naruto," she gritted determinedly. Three minutes, if she could control this for just three minutes, it would be enough.

Dear god, let it be enough.

Naruto gave her more chakra, tentatively though. He was trying to shelter her from the worst of it. Still, it hissed and spit, cracking through her. As touching as the sentiment was, there was no time for it, and the difference it made was laughably small anyway. No, they needed all the chakra he could muster. If he held back on her account, this would surely fail.

She concentrated on her breathing and on the image in her head. The red chakra turned softer, lighter. Crimson to dark, dusky rose, to delicate pink.

"Naruto," she said, making sure her voice was strong and clear. "Don't worry about me."

He hesitated. She felt it more than she saw it in his face - a tremor in the chakra connecting them as he tried to control the increase.

"Naruto!"

"Okay," he snapped. Then the wave. It washed over her, and suddenly she wasn't being cut to tatters from the inside; she was drowning in a sea of violent, searing red chakra. It burned in her nose and in her mouth. The flavors of lead and sulfur and char melted on her tongue. She felt herself shake, twitch, her stomach turning. Stumbling back two steps, she braced herself against the cavern wall.

How the hell did he control this at all, let alone use it?

She was stretching, pulling at the seams. This chakra had to go somewhere.

But not yet. Not yet.

There was so much of it, so very much of it, but she fought for a corner of her mind and built the picture again, this time larger. She painted it red, then softened it to pink. The image fought the change, and she bit her lip hard, squeezing her eyes closed. She willed it to submit.

Crimson fading to rose, and finally pink. Like a sunset through smoke. Like a slowly lifting stain.

Was it working, she worried. Was it even fucking possible?

"Sakura?" It was Sasuke this time. If she hadn't known him, she wouldn't have heard the rough note of concern in her name. "Sakura, if you can't do it, say so now. There might be time for you and Naruto to run."

Her and Naruto, but not Sasuke, because Itachi was in this cave, and Sasuke wouldn't run away if his brother might still come out. Itachi was in there, and that thing. That thing, with its eyes and its hands, and the slow sense of rising menace that was more powerful even than the Nine-Tail's stifling contempt.

"Damn it, don't kill yourself trying to be some kind of hero, Sakura," Sasuke hissed, his anger and his worry threading the sibilant tone.

"Be quiet," she told him, less sharply than she intended. "I almost have it. Just be quiet."

Naruto didn't let up, for which she was infinitely grateful.

Sasuke didn't speak again, and she was too absorbed to do more than note his disapproval in passing. The shades between red and pink played over in her head, a silent, urgent mantra. She saw them in her mind's eye, and slowly, the ocean of red responded.

More of it came. Sweat beaded on her brow and evaporated there. Red to pink.

Talking a ragged breath, she said, "Sasuke."

She felt his response, and offered him the tamest portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra.

He took it without a sound, but as soon it filled him, she felt his response - she could tell that handling Naruto's chakra, even with her as a medium, horrified him. She could tell that it wasn't what he expected.

She felt the memory of the dark, venomous power that oozed out of his curse seal, and she heard Naruto's growl. A flare of vibrant chakra washed through her, and it was all she could do to hold the worst of it back.

Her teeth ached with the strain. The mountain rumbled over their heads. She couldn't even manage a prayer that it wouldn't fall.

Red faded to pink. Over and over again, the red chakra faded.

"Hurry," she urged Sasuke, ignoring Naruto's agitation. Grudgingly, Sasuke opened to her.

Fuck but it hurt more to pass the chakra along than it had to hold on to it. Before she'd felt like she'd burst, but now it seemed like she'd be scraped clean and left a hallow skin.

Sasuke drew more of Naruto's chakra, and the strain receded just a little. She felt slightly more substantial.

Maybe they could do this. She hadn't realized she'd doubted until she felt a tiny spark of hope. Just let this work.

For a long moment, they were strung like beads on the Nine-Tails' power. Sasuke's hands moved cautiously, shaping the seals. Sakura could feel him considering. They only had one shot at this, and he knew it. He chose carefully, concentrating on each form while the force of the chakra that passed from Naruto to him rocked the stone around him. Wind that wasn't wind lashed their hair and battered their clothes.

"Ready?" Sasuke asked. Sakura couldn't even hear him, but she knew he asked.

"Ready," she and Naruto agreed together. She steeled herself and focused on the flow of chakra from Naruto to Sasuke, keeping it steady and calm. Naruto flared, bright as blood and twice as vital, and determination tinged the Nine-Tail's chakra. Somehow, it seemed to give in quicker than before.

Then Sasuke released the chakra. It rushed through all three of them, pouring into the jutsu. There was no where else to go.

Sasuke set the power into a web spreading over the tunnel before them. The barrier was pink, tinted with the Nine-Tail's red and more human colors; blue and yellow, and a heavy, corrupted purple from Sasuke's curse seal.

It was almost over. Sakura licked her dry lips. She only had to keep this up for a few more seconds. Red faded, crimson to rose, rose to pink. Pink shimmered, humming with potential. Red boiled. Red faded.

She lied to herself, told herself that she could manage this for just a few seconds longer, and she believed it. She hardly felt the chakra singe her coils anymore; she pretended this was a good sign. Numbly, she kept the visualization going. They were so close.

"Sakura?" she thought she heard Naruto, or maybe it was just his worry vibrating to her through their connection. She pushed it aside. Only a few seconds more.

The barrier flowed now, filling the gaps. It crystallized in her mind and before her eyes, growing solid. There were words wrapped up in the network of chakra, words that moved if she tried to read them, pulling together in the center of the opening. Sasuke was a strange mix of resolve and conflicting emotions on one side of her, but all his will is bent into this seal. Itachi is in this cave, Sakura realized, and it dawned on her that this would be the form his revenge took. She sensed his bitterness, and his conviction.

Naruto was worse, in some ways. He wasn't torn. She could barely feel what must have been him through the overbearing weight of the fox, but she could tell that he was fighting with it - he was restless and worn, and just then, not entirely human himself.

They were so close. The seal wavered less and less. So close.

She just wanted them to get through this. All of them alive, all of them whole. All of them together. If she could last another second, she told herself, then it would happen. She told herself that again and again with every second that passed.

They were almost done.

Red faded to pink.

"Enough!" Sasuke shouted over the din, ripping himself free of their link. Chakra flooded the empty air, with nothing to do and no where to go but out.

It rushed out, fizzling.

Then Naruto let go of his end, and suddenly there was no red, and nothing left to hold her up. Dazed, Sakura swayed before falling to her knees in the shallow water.

She had never imagined that feeling absolutely nothing could be so amazing. Her mind was a perfect blank of pink, which seeped away, leaving the world white for a long, clear moment. The roaring in her ears settled to a deafening silence. Even the rasp of her own harsh breathing and the frantic beat of her heart were lost in it.

Her head throbbed, but there wasn't any pain. There was just a blessedly complete emptiness until, unwanted, she remembered her teammates, and the nothingness cracked. Were they okay? Sasuke had been injured and Naruto -

Naruto...

She searched clumsily for the words, even the concepts, to describe what was wrong with him.

They had arrived in time, Sasuke and Kakashi and she. For better or worse, the Nine-Tails was still firmly seated in its host, making it the only one of nine monsters still at large in the world. As at large as it could be, at least, when it was still safely confined to a human vessel. The rest of them were now locked in that cave. Or wherever else it was that they went after Akatsuki fed them to their ceremony.

Naruto though - she searched for the word and was finally forced to settle - Naruto wasn't well.

Kakashi.

She glanced at the barrier, assuring herself that they had done the right thing.

She had to look for her teammates.

Sasuke leaned against the wall, still on his feet. Sakura wasn't sure how he managed. His skin was paper white, his hair sticking to it with sweat and blood. He was panting hard and shaking unsteadily. But if Sakura was any judge, he looked alright. She was fairly certain he wasn't about to fall over dead. At the moment, that was all she asked.

When he caught sight of her looking his way, he nodded a lame reassurance, which she gladly took. He was alive. He was coherent enough to respond to her. She sighed softly, relief seeping in, bringing a headache with it.

The steady drip of water broke the silence.

Sakura shivered.

Naruto was still next to her, sprawled on his back in a mucky, churned pool that tinted his blond hair green.

His eyes were closed, and he was sucking air like a landed fish, but he was alive. Her head swam, and she could have passed out from sheer relief then. Crawling because she wasn't ready to risk standing, Sakura inched over to him and touched his shoulder gently.

Feverishly bright, bloodshot blue eyes snapped open at her touch. He grabbed her wrist in a strong grip. His pupils changed shape rapidly, twitching between slits and narrow ovals. As she watched, they seemed to wink at her, then they widened toward their natural shape.

She didn't think he could see her, at first. If he could, she didn't know how. There was no recognition on his face.

Then they opened and stayed that way, and Naruto's eyes focused on her.

He licked his lips. His respiration slowed. "I'm alright," he said huskily. "I'll be alright. Just leave me for a few minutes, okay?"

"Are you sure?" she asked. She sounded tired to her own ears. Tired and very skeptical.

He swallowed, his throat working visibly. "Yeah," he told her. His eyes were steady. "I'm sure."

Sakura turned his statement over thoughtfully in her mind. In the end, though, she was too exhausted to argue. If he said he was okay, she was willing to take his word for it.

Sliding down the cave wall, Sakura let herself relax. She didn't realize she'd lost consciousness until the smelling salts brought her awake sometime later.

To be continued.


	2. Chapter One

**Forfeit**

Chapter One

* * *

At just over fifty, Hinata was still an attractive woman. Her face was carefully worn and soft around her eyes and mouth, like well handled paper. When she smiled, the skin creased into generous smile lines. Her hair was still short, and still mostly dark, though grey had lightened it at the temples. She looked mature. Sagging and thin with age, but she carried herself with more confidence than she'd had in her youth. She had a good face for a mother and a new grandmother. She had a surprising face for the head of the Hyuuga clan, but oddly appropriate. 

The girl standing next to Hinata was her youngest daughter, Hideko. Sakura had delivered Hideko herself, though she couldn't recall having seen the girl since. It had been a difficult labor, and Hinata had been past the age for it.

She looked, Sakura decided, more like Hanabi or Neji than Hinata. It was the hair--lank brown-black--and the shape of her forehead. It was in her build, skinnier than Hinata had been at that age. Her carriage, however, was painfully that of her mother at the same stage. Her hands were folded in front of her, but never still. Her toes turned in. Her head was bowed, which neither Neji nor Hanabi would ever have done in Sakura's presence.

"Hello, Hideko," Sakura greeted the girl, offering her a soothing smile. "I haven't seen you since you were a baby. Time goes so quickly these days."

Hinata didn't say anything to that, because she was Hinata, and because remarking would have sounded either bitter or familiar. Hinata was rarely either.

The girl looked at Sakura through the veil of her hair. Her eyes were, of course, pristine Hyuuga white. The corner of her mouth twitched up shyly.

"Your mother tells me she thinks you'd have a knack for healing. What do you think?"

Hideko glanced at Hinata, then back at Sakura. Her hands fluttered against one another nervously. She opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again, stuttering silently before she finally answered. "I think that if Mother believes I'd be good at it, she's probably right. I'm not that good at fighting though..."

The girl trailed off. Sakura's eyes cut to Hinata, who sighed almost imperceptibly. "I think she'd be quiet suited for it. She has excellent chakra control, even for a Hyuuga. She's bright. Besides, at the moment there's not a single med-nin from our clan."

Blushing, Hideko shifted toward her mother. It looked as though given the chance, she'd have hidden behind her.

"I would be grateful if you would test her, Sakura. I don't ask more than that."

Sakura looked down at her hands, folded neatly on her desk. Those hands were as smooth and firm as her mentor's had been, but for a very different reason. "I think that testing her wouldn't be unreasonable, but what does her team think of this?"

"I've talked with her jounin instructor," Hinata told Sakura evenly, "Hyuuga Sanae."

"Ah," Sakura noised. "And Sanae approved?"

Hinata's lip twitched. "Sanae bowed to my judgment on the matter."

Hideko's blush deepened. Was she embarrassed because she thought her mother had bullied her teacher into agreeing to this? Sakura had to chuckle at the image of Hinata as a bully. Clan head or not, Hinata had probably been the pinnacle of courtesy.

And she had probably never once doubted that Sanae would comply with her request.

Time truly had agreed with Hinata.

Sakura smiled, climbing out from behind her desk to approach the pair of Hyuuga. "Shall we go outside? I think this will be easier there."

Hinata beamed gratefully. "Thank you, Sakura."

Sakura nodded. "Don't mention it. Let's see how she does before thanking me, alright?"

Leading the way outside, Sakura observed Hideko. There was no way to tell just by looking, but her gut reaction wasn't favorable. A med-nin couldn't be hesitant, not when life and death were in her hands. Still, the girl might surprise her, and it had been nearly a decade since Sakura had last taken an apprentice.

"Have you learned the tree climbing exercise?" she asked, picking her way through the tower halls.

"Yes," the girl replied quickly.

"Good, good," Sakura encouraged. "How did you do at it? Can you run up a tree?"

Hideko fidgeted. "Yes, ma'am, I can."

"That's a good start. How long did it take for you to learn? Can you walk up a tree? Or cling to it?"

The girl's gaze was fixed on her feet. "Yes, ma'am, I can. It took a few tries, I guess?"

"Are you asking me?" Sakura said, amused. "Did it take you a few times or not?"

"It took a few tries."

"Well, that's not bad." Sakura pushed open a door and led them through an open yard. The summer sun was bright, the air humid with Fire Country's summer. "What I'm going to have you do works on the same principle. You're going to have to show me that you can gather and mold chakra precisely."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You don't have to be so polite," Sakura said, waving absently. "Let's see how you do, alright?"

Hideko nodded, bowing her head. Sakura held back a sigh and pulled a scroll out of her sleeve. She thumbed it open and spread it out on the ground. "This," she explained, "is a respiration technique. It's used to force air in and out of the lungs of a patient who can't breathe on their own. It won't necessarily keep them alive--it could force a corpse to keep breathing--but if they die, it won't be because they weren't getting fresh air. Do you understand so far?"

"Yes," the girl answered, quick and quiet.

"It requires exact chakra control to maintain breathing. Too weak and the patient won't get enough oxygen. Too strong and you can burst their lungs. Now, since we don't have a body--" Sakura picked a leaf up off the ground and placed it on the scroll "--we'll improvise.

"I want you to lift the leaf up to here, then drop it back to here." She indicated the levels with her hand. "Don't let the leaf blow away, and don't let it fall back to the scroll. Understand?"

This time, she just nodded. Her brow was furrowed with concentration.

"Good. Now I'm only going to show you the hand seals once. Pay attention."

The girl held her breath while Sakura demonstrated.

oOo

"What do you think?" Hinata asked mildly as she and Sakura watched Hideko from the other side of the yard.

"I'm not sure yet," Sakura admitted. Hideko had dropped the leaf twice and let it blow away once. However since then, she had steadily become more and more adept at controlling it. The last few repetitions had been nearly flawless. Sakura hadn't told the girl not to use her Byukagan, but she seemed to have assumed that it wasn't allowed. "I could teach her, but I don't see why you'd ask. Hyuuga rarely opt to become med-nin."

Hinata sighed, crossing her arms under her breasts and watching her daughter. Her white eyes revealed little of what went on behind them, but her expressive face was transparent. The contrast was distinct. "Her Byukagan is nearly as powerful as Neji's was at this age," she confided finally. "She can see tenketsu, and her chakra control is notable. But taijutsu doesn't come easily to her, and she's indecisive. She's smart, but she doesn't trust herself, and she's fumbles to read moves that should be obvious."

Sakura considered for a moment. "Taijutsu aside, those problems would still apply to a med-nin. If she hesitates assessing a situation, it could cost lives."

"Sakura..." Hinata's voice faded to a breath. "I think she compares herself too much to her brother and sisters. I try to encourage her. She's my baby, the one I really wanted." Another pointed, soft pause crept into her speech. It wasn't tentative as it once would have been. Now it sounded dramatic, as though she were letting what she said sink in to her audience. Sakura almost envied her that gentle, potent maturity. "She seems to find my encouragement only more stressful, though. I think--I hope--that if she were to do something without her siblings to compare herself to, she'd become more confident.

"I think she would truly be successful as a med-nin."

The leaf rose at a controlled rate, paused, then sank again. Hideko had discovered that she couldn't just drop it and catch it as it fell; she had to lower it gradually.

"I'm not sure."

Hinata nodded. Her chest moved in a sigh Sakura didn't hear. "I understand. Thank you anyway, Sakura."

Snorting, Sakura shot the other woman a sharp look. Hinata didn't shy away from the glare. Mostly only younger shinobi did that, but some of Sakura's old peers fell into the pattern. It was nice to see Hinata hadn't. "I didn't say no. I said I wasn't sure. I'd like to speak with her."

"Thank you."

Sakura heard her smile and pulled a face. "Don't worry about it. I still haven't said yes. Hideko! You can stop now."

"Yes, ma'am," the girl answered promptly. The leaf blew away as soon as she released it, carried by a breeze.

"Hideko," Hinata said, stepping forward to speak with her daughter. "I'm going to leave you with Sakura, alright sweetie? I'll see you back at the house later."

Freezing for a brief moment, the girl stared at her mother; white eyes wide behind her hair. Sakura couldn't decide if the expression was frightened or hopeful. Maybe it was a little of both.

Then she nodded, that precise, diffident nod. "Yes, ma'am."

Hinata patted Hideko's shoulder as she walked by, and kept on walking. Even from the back, she radiated poise. Sakura smiled a little. Hinata had never been her friend, but it was nice to see how she had grown. She kept the smile as she turned toward Hideko, stepping up to the girl and planting her hands on her hips.

"Well," she said matter-of-factly, "you passed that test. What do you think? Was it hard?"

The girl looked at the scroll thoughtfully before she answered. "Not really. Should it have been?"

Sakura laughed. There wasn't any boasting in that question, just curiosity. As though the girl wasn't sure if that was the right answer. "For some people it would be. For others, no. It depends on your strengths as a ninja." She added in a conspiratorial tone, "Neither of my old teammates would have been able to do it at your age."

Hideko's expression became baldly suspicious, frowning, one eyebrow cocked. Sakura laughed again. No doubt she'd heard stories about Sakura's famous counterparts. "What? You don't believe me?"

The girl looked away quickly, her face smoothing and her cheeks brightening to a vivid pink. "I'm sorry..."

"It's alright!" Sakura interrupted, shaking her head. "Honestly, neither Naruto or Sasuke could do that when we were young. Naruto still can't. It takes too little chakra. If he tried to use that jutsu today, I promise you, the patient would die because his lungs exploded."

"You're teasing me..."

Sakura offered a reassuring smile. "I am not. I'm teasing Naruto, and he's not here, so there's nothing he can do about it."

Hideko's blush deepened.

Sakura waved her hands dismissively. "Don't be embarrassed about it. Naruto's not. And you can do something better than the Sixth Hokage. That has to make you a little proud, right?"

The girl didn't answer, scuffing her toe surreptitiously. She looked more uncomfortable than anything else. Sakura sighed.

"Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. You did well at the test, that's what matters." Sakura almost added that she respected Hideko's mother's opinion, but she got the impression that wouldn't help. "I think that if you want to, you could become a med-nin. The question is: Do you really want to?"

"What?" she asked softly. Sakura sighed. She was afraid this was going to happen.

"Becoming a med-nin is hard work," she explained, pushing her hair behind her ear and kneeling down to be on the girl's level. "If it's not what you really want to do, then training you would be a waste of my time and yours. You won't get out of your normal missions and training. You'd train with me on your free time. You'd have to practice when everyone else has time off. So, really," Sakura paused, meeting the girl's eyes seriously, "do you want to heal people? It's a great responsibility and a great challenge. If you want to do it, I think you could. If not, it will burn you out. Do you want to?"

Hideko tried to turn away, but Sakura reached out and stopped her. She didn't even touch the girl's face, but held her hand near her cheek. She couldn't turn her head that way without bumping Sakura's hand.

"Well?"

Biting her lip, the girl nodded. "I'm not afraid of work."

Sakura smiled a smile she learned from her master. "You had better not be."

oOo

Sakura knew when Naruto got back. There was no warning--there never was--and this time, no fanfare. He swept back into Konoha in the night, the errant Sixth Hokage, standing on Sakura's front step and no longer quite able to look human. He grinned at her, wide and white, when she opened the door.

"Did you miss me?" he asked.

She sighed, shaking her head, and invited him in.

He hadn't changed much from the last time she saw him, or from the time before that, or the time before that. Not that she had, either. Their nature, whatever it had become since they sealed the Akatsuki's cave, didn't lend itself to natural aging. They weren't the same as they had been, but the evolution was different. They didn't get older; they only became more potent. And in Naruto's case, that made him very potent indeed.

His chakra filled the room, too big for the space, making the air thick and oppressive. It licked at her, almost like a greeting. After so long, she was good at pretending to be comfortable with it.

"Would you like some tea?" she offered, following him into her home.

"Sake?"

Humming a response, she waved him toward the kitchen. "You know which cupboard it's in," Sakura told him. "I'm not going to wait on you."

If anything, Naruto grinned wider. The expression split his face in two, and narrowed his eyes to thin crescents. "You didn't say if you missed me."

"You know I did." She looked him up and down. In the evening, he seemed to glow faintly gold, rather than the red of his tenant. "What brings you back?"

She knew better than to ask how long he planned to stay in Konoha this time. He never lingered as long as he said he would. She didn't like making him lie.

He didn't answer her directly. Instead, he asked, "Mind if I sleep here tonight?"

Which really said everything she needed to know, for the moment.

* * *

To be continued. 


End file.
